This week, the European Network and Information Security Agency (ENISA) has facilitated a cyber-security exercise in which over 300 experts from all over Europe gathered to simulate a massive cyberattack.

Cyber Europe 2012 is the 2nd exercise of this type, its goal being to strengthen cyber cooperation, preparedness and response across Europe.

In this particular edition, the challenge for the representatives of the 25 participant countries was to handle over 1,000 simulated cyber incidents. The scenario combined several technically realistic threats into one simultaneously escalating DDOS attack on critical services.

In the real world, such an attack would prevent millions of Europeans from accessing online services.

The main objectives of Cyber Europe 2012 were to identify the gaps and challenges on how cyber incidents can be handled more efficiently, promote cooperation between public and private organizations, and test the effectiveness of existing security procedures and mechanisms.

“ENISA aims to support the cyber crisis community in improving the resilience of critical information infrastructures. That is why we facilitated the organisation of Cyber Europe 2012,” ENISA Executive Director Prof. Udo Helmbrecht explained.